Wexford company Taoglas opens ‘first of its kind’ $2m facility in San Diego

The new facility, which is the first of its kind in North America, will offer device designers and manufacturers a fully equipped design and testing location.

The San Diego location is an antenna and radio frequency design centre, dedicated to the IoT market.

The company was set up by Wexford man, Dermot O’Shea and Dubliner Ronan Quinlan in 2004. It currently employs 37 in Wexford and some 130 worldwide.

The firm also has locations in Taiwan and Germany. Taoglas also expects to expand further in Ireland.

Speaking about the launch of its new centre, Ronan Quinlan, the firm’s co-CEO, said that the new facility is off the back on continued re-investment.

“Our enlarged San Diego facility reflects our growth rate last year of almost 100pc. We work hard to support our customers worldwide who, not only need the off-the-shelf or custom antennas we offer, but also need design services and assistance.

“In Wexford, Taoglas’ headquarters houses research and development (R&D), finance, marketing and product management for Taoglas globally. It also has customer service, sales and engineering support for European customers,” Mr Quinlan said.

Commenting on the investment by a globally-recognised Irish company, Philip Grant, consul general of Ireland to the Western United States, said: “The expansion of an Irish company in the North American market is a great example of how Irish technology and business ingenuity can contribute to local economies. Taoglas has been servicing this region from San Diego for only five years so such growth is quite impressive.”